But the biggest problem that stopped me from continuing was that when I copied the NEF files to my computer and tried to open them in Adobe Photoshop CS3, the software would just say that the file was invalid! That was very pissing off! I researched on the Internet like crazy, downloaded the latest plugins, followed all the instructions that people had to say but CS3 refused to recognize my NEF files. Recently I've been trying to shoot RAW using my DSLR Nikon D5000. Canon has its own extension, and so has almost every camera maker out there (Sony, Pentax, Olympus, etc). NEF is Nikon's version of the RAW files which stands for Nikon Electronic Format. It's almost like getting a second chance to take a photo. So, if you botched the white balance, you can change it in your RAW editor, with no ill effects. Thanks to this, you can adjust all kinds of image properties without degrading the quality of the image. So what is RAW, anyway? The RAW image format (Nikon calls it NEF) stores unprocessed data from the camera's sensor. Still not clear? This is how Jeff Keller, DCRP Founder/Editor explains it in almost all his DSLR reviews: This gives the photographer leverage in post-processing, which is "tinkering" with the photo in an image editing software manually to make it look optimum. These are huge files because none of the picture information is lost, and everything is stored by the camera.
These RAW files are essentially the same image files without any of your camera's magic applied to it. In DSLR's and some high end point and shoot cameras, there is another type of file that you can get from your camera: RAW. It also depends a lot on what kind of settings you choose in your digital camera. In this internal processing, the camera does what it thinks is best for the final outcome to look "optimal". What is RAW? Well, consider this: before you get your JPEG image files from your digital cameras as the final output, the camera (after taking a photograph) does some internal processing "automatically". But as the hobby started getting serious with a lot of investment (time and money) going into it, I wanted to start shooting RAW because almost everyone whom I looked up to in photography advised so.īefore we continue with my story, some basic explanations first.
And all along, I've been only shooting JPEGs. I've been into photography as a serious hobby for about one-and-a-half years now.